Being neighbors with a West Indian family has some definite advantages, especially when the husband and wife both love to cook. Huguens and Carol are always concocting some Caribbean dish with various island spices and tropical ingredients. As the foodie next door, I often get a sampling of their ...
Kitchen Chronicles
Cooking Connections
When you open your kitchen and start cooking with others, some serendipitous connections happen you might not expect. My friend Amy, who's been part of our Denver cooking group, told me her dad liked what we were doing. Amy's dad knows food--he grew up in the baking business and even created his own ...
Scone Extravaganza
After meeting every Thursday morning for two years, my toddler playgroup is evolving. Suzy, having consistently gushed over the sweet buttery flavor of scones served fresh for playgroup snacks, never thought that she could make them herself. In fact, she declared one morning that scones were ...
Girlfriend’s Grits
Anytime I see something in a recipe that I’ve never made before - a method of cooking, an unusual ingredient or even an exotic spice — I’m invigorated by the challenge. Awestruck like a child in a candy store, I can’t wait to explore all that a new food has to offer. But first, I try to find a ...
Pizza Party
If you want to get your kids to eat something, let them make it themselves. The creativity, work and pride of ownership put into a dish makes it taste even better. Yesterday afternoon, we gathered about 10 kids for a make-your-own pizza party. They stood on chairs around flour-dusted tables, ...
What’s Mine is Yours
Shannon strikes a familiar chord in her latest blog entry “Community Gardens.” I whole heartedly agree that there is nothing more fulfilling than giving what we grow in our gardens to friends. In fact, sharing a garden’s surplus is something that most everyone can afford to do, even in a tight ...
Community Gardens
My friend Christine asked me to come over this week to advise her on planting a vegetable and herb garden. We stomped around her backyard, talking about what would grow well where, what's fun for kids to help with and what to do about watering and choosing seeds over plants. After a long winter, it ...
Follow Your Nose
I love spice shops and must add to Shannon's blog! Spice shops are an endless source of cooking ideas and are usually run by passionate foodies enthusiastic to share their culinary insight. If you ask, they'll often share a recipe or two. Experimenting with spices is also one of the simplest ...
Spice of Life
Walking around downtown Denver a bit early for an appointment, I saw a store I'd driven by many times: Spice Boys of the Rockies. I walked in and was immediately swept up in what many of us are missing in our cooking--creativity, excitement, love--through the exotic sweet smell. The guys who run ...
The nose factor
Ahhh. . . what a wonderful smell! Walk into a house that has a loaf of banana bread in the oven and it’s almost as good as taking a long hot bubble bath. There’s nothing more comforting to the soul. It’s a known real estate fact that homes that have appealing smells will sell faster than those ...